In terms of experiencing the Hot Wheels brand beyond the actual diecast vehicles, the #Hot Wheels Legends Tour may be the best way to do so. The in-person and virtual live-stream events pit custom 1:1 cars against each other at every event. Each event crowns a winner, and at the end of the year, a grand champion is decided — earning the right to be made into a 1:64 Hot Wheels vehicle.

The 2024 Hot Wheels “B” case assortment holds our first look at the 2022 champion, the “Texas Toot”, a 1992 Autozam Scrum. For legal purposes, the Hot Wheels vehicle is called the #Mazda Autozam. I have to admit that I was among the skeptics when this monster-ized, kei truck won. Mainline castings of today are typically comprised of four pieces (body, base, window, and interior), so for this vehicle to work, it would have to be 1) fairly large, and 2) meticulously comprised of those 4 pieces without appearing clunky.

Leave it to Hot Wheels Designer/Sculptor, Manson Cheung to figure it out. The Hot Wheels #Mazda Autozam looks amazing! It joins the other 4 #Hot Wheels Legends Tour WINNERS: #2 Jet Z, #The Nash, #’70 Pontiac Firebird, and #Volvo P1800 Gasser as Hot Wheels vehicles.

Mazda Autozam

As a Hot Wheels collector, it’s been fun to see the whole process come together. From following each tour stop on social media to see who wins all-the-way to seeing the end result in 1:64. It’s cool to see these super creative, one-off vehicles immortalized as Hot Wheels. And, the “Texas Toot” is proof that we can get some really cool Hot Wheels from this process.

On May 14, 2022, first-time custom car builder, Craig Meaux, brought his 1992 Autozam Scrum Monster Truck to the Hot Wheels Legends Tour event at the Beaumont, Texas, Walmart. 19 months later, his creation is now being sold around the world with it’s “Texas Toot” nickname and the state of Texas displayed proudly on the doors. Craig spent countless hours building his #Kei Truck, monster truck putting a 454 big block engine into a custom frame which was 100% custom-built from the ground up. It checked boxes in the three main categories of Legends: Creativity, Authenticity, and Garage Spirit, winning the Houston event — and ultimately, exuding the personality needed to win the entire 2022 tour.

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Volvo P1800 Gasser

The 2021 Hot Wheels Legends Tour winner was Lee Johnstone and his creation, “Ain’t No Saint”. This was the first vehicle to win from a Hot Wheels Legends event outside of the United States as the creation initially won the UK livestream event. The 1:1 car feature’s a stick figure on the sides complete with it’s nickname, “Ain’t No Saint” — which is a play on the logo from the 1960’s British TV series, The Saint, which featured a very similar logo. In the series, The Saint drove Volvo P1800, hence the connection of the car and it’s name. Jay Leno’s Garage even featured the car that was once owned by Roger Moore.

The Hot Wheels version of the car features “HOT WHEELS” on this sides along with a stick figure holding up a trophy. This was most likely done to avoid any type of additional licensing from the TV series intellectual property owners. The Hot Wheels casting debuted in 2023 in dark green, and again in dark red, as part of the #HW Dream Garage series, and will have a Super Treasure Hunt in 2024 — the first Legends winner to be released as such.

’70 Pontiac Firebird

2020 was obviously a crazy year. Only the first Hot Wheels Legends event was held in Miami, Florida, before going to a livestream format due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite an abbreviated year, 13 events were held and Riley Stair’s 1970 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am was crowned the champion. This 1,000+ HP beast was featured at SEMA a few years prior and Stance Works did an exquisite feature on the car.

The Hot Wheels car sits about as low as a Hot Wheels basic car can mimicking the ultra-low stance of Riley’s creation. Scale-wise, the car was incredibly difficult to pull-off at 1:64. The decision was to feature the car without a hood, therefore all the support bars surrounding the engine had to be thickened for safety reasons since this is a toy-first, after-all. The engine (as part of the interior piece) was done in chrome ABS plastic, allowing for some pretty nice detail considering how intricate the 1:1 is.

The Nash

On May 18, 2019, Greg Salzillo and Dave Ford — designers/builders of the “Nashole” — brought their creation to the Hot Wheels Legends Tour Event at the Mattel Design Center in El Segundo, California. That day, they walked away as event winners. Their custom 1957 Nash Metropolitan was ultimately chosen as the 2019 champion as Hot Wheels Vice President of Design, Ted Wu, stated, “We chose ‘The Nash’ as it represents the true garage spirit by bringing generations together and creating an impressive car that’s built, not bought. You see it and instantly know it’s meant to be Hot Wheels with that color, the shape and the dice.”

#The Nash debuted as a 2021 New Model in the #HW Dream Garage segment. The name was obviously changed due to “Nashole” being too vulgar for a children’s toy. The casting rides on skinny wheels to more accurately capture the aesthetic of the 1:1.

2 Jet Z

There is something special about being the first. Luis Rodriguez brought his “new age hot rod” to the Legends Tour Event on June 16, 2018 at the Newark, New Jersey, Walmart, and beat out a ton of worthy rides. A little over 4 months later, he found himself at SEMA in Las Vegas being crowned the winner of the 2018 Legends Tour. The #2 Jet Z became a household name, literally! Luis’ creation became the first Legends winner to become a Hot Wheels car and kids (and adults) around the world were be able to race the jet-shaped car down the orange track and store it in their Hot Wheels collections.

I covered it’s release back in November 2019 as the #2 Jet Z debuted as a 2020 New Model in the #HW Dream Garage segment. To casual collectors, the casting may look like another Hot Wheels original design, but those that know the story, can appreciate Luis’ work and that of Hot Wheels Designer, Manson Cheung who not only had to scale this unique vehicle down to 1:64, but also adhere to the Hot Wheels brand standards of making it a safe and reliable toy vehicle. Just like the #Mazda Autozam which started this article, the 2 Jet Z is intricately put together, making great use of the four parts that make up a Hot Wheels car. It was the car that started the collection — a collection that has surely been fun for this collector to build!